Websites rarely die dramatically. They decay — quietly, in ways owners don’t notice because they stopped looking at their own site months ago. Here are the seven signs we check first, and how to check them yourself.
1. The copyright year in the footer is wrong
Trivial? It’s the single fastest tell that nobody is looking after a site. Customers notice it too, and draw the same conclusion.
2. The update counter in wp-admin is in double digits
Log in and look at the number beside “Updates”. Ten-plus pending updates means the security patches inside them are sitting unapplied — and each one is publicly documented for attackers.
3. Your contact form hasn’t delivered a lead in a while
Is that because enquiries stopped — or because the form did? Send yourself a test right now. Broken form email is one of the most common and most expensive silent failures.
4. It’s noticeably slow on your own phone
You built up tolerance visiting your own site; new visitors haven’t. If it feels sluggish to you on mobile data, customers are leaving before it loads.
5. Google results for your brand look odd
Search site:yourdomain.co.za. Pages you don’t recognise — especially in other languages or about pharmaceuticals — mean the site is compromised right now.
6. The SSL padlock is missing or complaining
Browsers flag “Not secure” on sites with expired or missing certificates. It kills trust instantly and certificates renew automatically on any decent host — when someone is watching.
7. You don’t know when the last backup ran
Not “I think the host does something” — actually know. When did it run? Where is it stored? Could you restore by tomorrow? If any answer is a shrug, you’re one bad day from losing the site.
Scored three or more?
Your site needs an owner. That can be you with a monthly checklist — or it can be us. WP Hero starts every subscription with a health check that covers all seven of these, then keeps watch permanently.